Horizons ETFs (Canada) has announced it is making changes to the investment objective of the Horizons Medical Marijuana Life Sciences ETF to reflect the proposed change in federal law to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Canada.

Horizons ETFs has announced it will reduce the management fee on the Horizons Canadian Select Universe Bond ETF (Toronto: HBB) from 0.15% to 0.09% as of 1 July 2017. Steve Hawkins, president and Co-CEO of Horizons ETFs, said: “With a combination of low yields and the always-looming prospect of rising interest rates, it’s essential for Canadian fixed income investors to reduce the cost of their bond exposure to ensure they preserve more of their returns.”

Canada-based Horizons ETFs has introduced new indices for twelve of its commodity-tracking exchange-traded funds. Each fund will henceforth track an index designed and calculated by German index provider Solactive. The ETFs’ names, objectives and fee structures will remain unchanged.

Canada-based Horizons ETFs has filed its final prospectus to launch the Horizons Medical Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (HMMJ), which has been granted conditional approval for listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange on 5 April 2017. The fund will be the first ETF to offer direct exposure to North American-listed stocks that are involved with medical marijuana bioengineering and production. The underlying North American Medical Marijuana Index is up a whopping 146.3% over the past year.

Horizons ETFs (Canada) has announced that AUM for the Horizons Active Preferred Share ETF (Toronto: HPR) has exceeded $1bn, marking the first time an actively managed ETF has reached this milestone in Canada. The ETF seeks to provide dividend income while preserving capital by investing in preferred shares of Canadian companies. Steven Hawkins, President and Co-CEO of Horizons ETFs, commented: “[The milestone] supports our belief that true, discretionary active management used within an ETF structure works, particularly in an asset class with less than optimal market efficiency, like preferred shares.”

Horizons ETFs USA, a member of the Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Group, has entered into an agreement to acquire Recon Capital Advisors, a Connecticut-based investment advisor to ETFs. Under the terms of the agreement, Recon members will join Horizons USA and the four ETFs managed by Recon Capital will be managed by Horizons USA. Garrett Paolella, Chief Executive Officer at Recon Capital, said: “We are proud to be joining the Horizons USA team. Horizons ETFs has built a solid reputation as an innovator in the global ETF market, and we share this commitment to innovation.

Canada-based Horizons ETFs has announced that assets under management for its actively managed exchange-traded fund suite has exceeded CAD3bn, driven by strong demand for income and multi-asset strategies. Steve Hawkins, President and Co-CEO of Horizons ETFs, commented: “It’s very gratifying to see that actively managed ETFs have started to gain such widespread acceptance amongst Canadian investors. In fact, with more than CAD14bn invested in this ETF category, Canada has the highest proportion of actively managed ETF assets in the world.”

The Canadian exchange-traded fund industry has enjoyed another month of inflows, with ETF and ETP assets reaching a new record of US$81bn at the end of July 2016, according to industry consultants ETFGI. Year to date (July month-end) assets under management are up 25.3%, with inflows of $180m seen in July. Mirae Horizons gathered the largest net inflows over the month, with $147m, followed by Vanguard with $131m and RBC Global AM with $21m.

Canadian exchange-traded fund provider Horizons ETFs has launched an actively managed ETF designed to keep risk levels balanced across all invested asset classes, regardless of market conditions. The Horizons Global Risk Parity ETF (Toronto: HRA) is the first locally listed ETF to offer Canadian investors access to a risk-parity strategy. Risk Parity theory states that optimal diversification is achieved through assigning portfolio allocations which target a balanced contribution of risk from each asset class. Steve Hawkins, Co-CEO, Horizons ETFs, said: “HRA strives to keep risk levels across asset classes similar to one another, which can result in lower overall volatility and potentially higher risk-adjusted returns.”

Canadian exchange-traded funds provider Horizons ETFs has launched the Horizons Global Currency Opportunities ETF (Toronto: HGC), an actively managed fund providing exposure to worldwide currency markets. The ETF is sub-advised by CIBC Asset Management, one of Canada’s largest asset managers with over $26bn in currency-related assets, as of 30 June, 2016. “With one of the largest currency investment teams in North America, by AUM, we chose to partner with CIBC Asset Management on this ETF because of their diligent approach to selecting currency investments that have the potential for greater returns, without adding excess risk,” commented Steve Hawkins, Co-CEO, Horizons ETFs.